Instructions to the Applicant You are required to prepare an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan (ESCP) for the project site as provided within the accompanying drawings/plans. The ESCP does not need detailed engineering construction drawings but must have sufficient information (in the form of drawings, notes, calculations and/or reports) to demonstrate how erosion and sediment control would be undertaken during construction of the new road. Assume your plan will be assessed by a suspicious, pedantic erosion and sediment control professional who works for the regulator or consenting authority. That person needs to be convinced that your calculations are accurate and your plan will work. The following drawings have been provided: 1. Road layout including contours, elevations, culverts, watercourses, flood extents and project boundaries. 2. Centreline long section. 3. Road cross sections. The project site location is to be nominated by you. You can choose to place the site anywhere in Australia however: - The selected location must be relevant to the geographical area of your regular day-to-day work AND - The chosen location must have an average annual rainfall of at least 650mm/yr. This location is to be a real location and should be used to determine various input parameters (e.g. rainfall data) for your ESCP. You need to specify the exact location in your documentation. All relevant site information and data is detailed within the accompanying Background Information. You must specify what standards or reference document you are working to. For example, you might specify that your plan is prepared in accordance with the New South Wales Blue Book (Landcom, 2004) or the IECA (2008) Best-Practice Erosion and Sediment Control (BPESC) document. Ensure the site location you have nominated is relevant to the standards you are working to (for example, dont nominate a site location in Queensland then select the NSW Blue Book as your standard). You are expected to be familiar with the legislative environment for the area you nominate and the level of information that would typically be required for an ESCP in that area. Ensure you describe all of the various practices used and assumptions made when preparing your ESCP. You will need to evaluate the site, its resources and conditions and identify a range of soil and water management measures suitable for use at the site considering the construction of a major road project. You will need to be familiar with road construction techniques (e.g. staging, cut/fill balances etc) to be able to complete this exercise. Note that the CPESC committee and IECA will not answer questions posed by applicants regarding typical construction methodology for a road project like this. If applicants do not have the technical knowledge and experience of how a road project like this is constructed, they should not undertake this exercise. Your ESCP should consist of two parts: 1. A series of drawings/plans which show the proposed layout/locations of the soil and water management works. 2. A commentary or set of notes which contains supporting text and diagrams including components such as calculations, monitoring and maintenance schedules, copies of standard drawings, check lists and other items that demonstrate the completeness of the plan. Your ESCP needs to address the major erosion and sediment control measures that would be used for the period of works that includes early works, stripping, bulk earthworks and drainage installation. Note that this might necessitate you preparing an over-arching (or Primary) ESCP for the project, plus several detailed (or Progressive) ESCPs for key areas such as the bridge, creek realignment and major culverts. Erosion and sediment control measures are not to be positioned outside of the project boundary. It is expected that your ESCP will include as a minimum: o Positioning of sediment basins; o Calculations detailing the size of sediment basins; o Positioning (and, possibly, sizing) of other sediment traps; o Positioning of any temporary drainage structures (e.g. diversion drains); o Dimensions of any temporary drainage structures, including calculations and assumptions used in determining these dimensions; o Instructions regarding those permanent drainage structures that are to be installed early so they become part of the temporary drainage management during construction; o Instructions regarding the order that erosion and sediment control measures are to be installed and/or removed; o Instructions regarding the timing of clearing, stabilisation and/or rehabilitation; o Separate detailed ESCPs for key high-risk work areas such as the bridge and the major culvert(s); o Notes and instructions regarding ongoing inspection, monitoring and maintenance of all erosion and sediment control measures. This includes sediment basin maintenance regimes following rainfall; o Instructions and recommendations for effective stabilisation and rehabilitation at various stages of the works. The drawings provided are drawn to scale (scale bar provided). You are expected to determine things such as catchment areas, slopes and slope lengths from the scale plans in order to complete your design. You will need to determine if the construction works need to be staged to ensure appropriate soil and water management practices are implemented across the site. The contractor does not intend to stage the opening of the road the whole road is to be completed before it is opened to traffic. Several plans might need to be provided for various stages/parcels of works (e.g. each culvert crossing might necessitate a separate plan or set of plans). You will need to work out all design criteria (e.g. rainfall volumes) for catch drains, sediment basins, spillways and temporary diversions. Your ESCP should include this background information. You will need to size the structures listed above and provide relevant sizing details. However, you are not required to undertake detailed civil engineering design to show the earthworks/levels for these structures. Any calculations included in your submission must be relevant and demonstrate your ability and understanding. Simply including pages of computer printouts without identifying the relevant data is not acceptable. Any monitoring or maintenance plan should have clearly designed success criteria. For example, achieve x% vegetation cover within y days; or sediment basin discharge waters must not exceed an NTU of xx. If required, you can refer to standard drawings, tables or lists in best-practice publications but the reference must be correct and fully cited. For example IECA, 2008 is not sufficient as a reference, but IECA, 2008 Table xx would be acceptable. Your plan should be neat and easy to follow. If the examiner cannot clearly read your plan it could affect your mark. Your plan can be marked up: - By hand, drawn onto printed copies of the provided plan(s); or - By using a computer program to mark up the pdf files provided; or - By using a CAD drawing package. The relevant .dxf files have been provided. Note that, regardless of which method you use to mark up your plan, a hard copy of your work needs to be submitted to the CPESC Committee. All work must be your own original efforts. If the CPESC Application Review Committee finds any evidence of plagiarism, then the applicant will automatically fail. Further, the person whose paper was copied will be reported to the CPESC ethics committee. While you may request a colleague review your work prior to submission, that person can only provide general comments and assistance and must not give you direct instruction. Submission of Completed Exams The completed ESCP (plan/s and report) are to be returned by the nominated date to: The Chair, CPESC Committee C/- IECA (Australasia) PO Box 33 Picton, NSW 2571
Marks will be deducted for late entries unless prior approval is granted. Extensions will only be granted for extenuating circumstances. Contact Sandra Lanz in the IECA Australasia office to discuss: admin@austieca.com.au Only one hard copy needs to be provided when sending your entry in. Ensure you retain a copy of your completed submission. IECA Australasia and CPESC Inc. accept no responsibility for entries that go missing.
Background Information
Location The project site location is to be nominated by you. You can choose to place the site anywhere in Australia however: o The selected location must be relevant to the geographical area of your regular day-to-day work AND o The chosen location must have an average annual rainfall of at least 650mm/yr. The chosen location is to be a real place and should be used to determine various input parameters (e.g. rainfall data) for your ESCP.
Project Description The project covers all works associated with the construction of a dual carriageway highway. This includes early works, stripping and earthworks, drainage works, structural works, pavement construction and stabilisation/rehabilitation works. Significant cut and fill is required to construct the roadway. Permanent upslope drainage and diversion works are included in the construction of the roadway. The project includes the installation of permanent stormwater systems (e.g. pits and pipes, cut-off drains, diversion swales and culverts). A section of the roadway passes through a floodplain. The roadway here will be constructed to give flood immunity up to the 100 year ARI flood event. This will involve the construction of an earth embankment plus bridge and flood relief culvert. The new bridge consists of bored piles, concrete headstocks (formed in situ) and pre- cast concrete spans. Major plant required for bridge construction includes a piling rig and a 400 tonne crane. All concrete, asphalt and other materials will be delivered to the project. A mobile concrete batching or asphalt plant is not required. The entire project is estimated to take approximately 2 years from initial groundbreaking to effective completion. Access to and from the project alignment is from the eastern and western ends only. Erosion and sediment control measures are not to be located outside of the project boundary. If this limits your ability to install certain control measures in some areas, then you might need to come up with alternatives. Consideration should be given to the area taken up by structures like sediment basins when putting your ESCP together.
Site Topography and Surrounding Lands The site and surrounding areas are characterised by gently undulating rolling hills. The site and surrounding lands currently exist as well-grassed grazing pastures with areas of scattered tress. No areas of endangered or protected vegetation occur onsite nor in the immediate vicinity.
Site Drainage and Catchments Several drainage lines traverse the site. The most significant drainage line is Clearwater Creek. A bridge is to be built over Clearwater Creek and the creek itself will be re-aligned as part of the proposed roadworks. Clearwater Creek flows from south to north. It is a permanently-flowing drainage feature except in times of extreme drought. Its catchment is mostly comprised of grassland and bushland areas and is approximately 250ha. Clearwater Creek has the following flows in various storm events: o Q1: 15.6m 3 /s o Q2: 36.2m 3 /s o Q5: 62.8m 3 /s o Q10: 78.0m 3 /s o Q20: 98.7m 3 /s o Q50: 124.0m 3 /s o Q100: 144.0m 3 /s The existing creek channel presently conveys all flows up to the Q2 (2-year ARI) event without spilling onto the surrounding floodplain. The proposed new creek channel underneath the bridge is designed to wholly contain the Q2 (2-year ARI) event without spilling onto the surrounding floodplain. The culvert at ch600 is a flood-relief culvert only and sits at the edge of the floodplain of Clearwater Creek. There is no defined channel at that location. Another major drainage feature along the alignment is at ch2360, where an un- named perennial drainage line (a third-order stream under the Strahler system) flows from north to south. A box-culvert crossing is to be constructed at this location on the alignment of the existing drainage line. This drainage line has a catchment of approximately 70ha that is made up of a combination of residential, urban and bushland areas. It has the following flows in various storm events: o Q1: 0.97m 3 /s o Q2: 2.93m 3 /s o Q5: 5.52m 3 /s o Q10: 6.92m 3 /s o Q20: 8.67m 3 /s o Q50: 10.50m 3 /s o Q100: 12.20m 3 /s An existing dam near ch2820 is to be filled in as part of the project. The new culvert at ch2130 will be offset from the drainage line, so as to allow construction of the culvert without any disturbance within the drainage line. Note that this is only a minor (2 nd -order) drainage line and it does not carry any flows except during significant rain events. The drainage line will be diverted into the new culverts as shown on the drawings. All permanent drainage swales along the road alignment have been designed to the 10-year ARI event. No sizing is provided for these as part of this exercise but you can assume they can cope with all flows up to and including the 10-year ARI event. The local authorities administrating fish and aquatic fauna/flora have approved works within Clearwater Creek only during the drier months. You will need to determine what time of the year that is for your selected location. No restrictions apply to works within other drainage features or to works on the floodplain surrounding Clearwater Creek.
Climate and Rainfall and Runoff Climate and rainfall data will be specific to the site location you have chosen. You will need to determine all of the relevant information and data for your chosen site (i.e. IFD Table, rainfall depths, Cv value/s, C 10 value/s etc.). Your chosen site must have an average annual rainfall of at least 650mm/yr.
Soils Soils are fairly uniform along the proposed alignment. Samples were taken from the site and laboratory tests were undertaken. The results are shown below: Subsoil Particle Size Analysis (PSA) = Clay (39%), Silt (37%), Fine Sand (16%), Coarse Sand (5%), Gravel (3%). Subsoil Dispersion Percentage =22% Subsoil K-factor = 0.051 USCS class = CL,ML Soil hydrologic group is D (low permeability, high runoff potential) Typical soil characteristics include: Topsoil (0 200mm) Subsoil (200 1200mm) Sandy loam Low to moderate fertility Weakly pedal Low wet bearing strength Non-dispersive and non-sodic Low CEC Non saline pH (1:5) is 5.6 Light-medium silty clay Moderately sodic Massive soil structure Moderately dispersible: EAT 3(2) to 3(3) Non-reactive Moderate CEC Non saline pH (1:5) is 6.9
Additional Background Information No sites of Aboriginal or European heritage significance are known to exist on the subject lands or in the immediate vicinity. Although underground services such as water or fibre optic cable might be included in the final design, you do not need to consider these for your ESCP. No imported fill will be required. Topsoil removed as part of the project is to be stockpiled during construction and later re-used as part of the site rehabilitation. Instructions should be included in your ESCP regarding erosion and sediment controls for stockpiles. There are no inherent contamination issues. Pipe and culvert installation includes the removal of some soft, unsuitable material although the geotechnical report suggests volumes are minor. Note that the superelevation details might not show up on the long sections. This is due to an Autocad error when converting to pdf. However this should not impact on your ability to complete the exercise because the superelevation details are duplicated elsewhere in the drawing set.